Foreign mercenary sentenced for invading Russia's Kursk Region
A Russian court has sentenced Colombian national Pablo Puentes Boorghes to 28 years in prison for fighting on behalf of Ukraine during its armed incursion into Kursk Region. He has also been ordered to pay a fine of 1 million rubles ($12,700).
In a statement to the news outlet RBK on Tuesday, Russia's Investigative Committee said that Boorghes has been found guilty of mercenarism, terrorism, and several other criminal offenses, including illegal border crossing, arms trafficking, and the unlawful possession of firearms.
According to investigators, Boorghes voluntarily joined Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade in late 2024 and participated in the incursion into Russia's border region for material compensation. The Investigative Committee stated that the Colombian took part in coordinated actions 'to intimidate the population, cause significant property damage, and destabilize the activities of government bodies,' adding that he also threatened to 'use firearms against the civilian population and blocked the territory of the Sudzhansky District of Kursk Region.'
Russian forces captured Boorghes near the village of Alexandria during clashes with Ukrainian units. Investigators said he admitted his guilt in full during pretrial proceedings.
According to the verdict, the Colombian will spend the first five years of his sentence in prison, with the remainder in a maximum-security penal colony. Authorities have also confiscated over 230,000 rubles ($2,900) from Boorghes for the benefit of the state.
Russia has repeatedly prosecuted foreign nationals for fighting for Ukraine. In March, a British citizen, James Scott Rhys Anderson, was sentenced to 19 years in prison on similar charges after being captured in the same region. Officials claimed Anderson had entered Russia alongside Ukrainian troops and committed crimes against civilians.
Moscow has consistently warned that any non-Ukrainians serving in Kiev's military will be regarded as mercenaries and criminals and will not be covered by the Geneva Convention protections usually granted to combatants.
The last estimate on mercenary casualties in Ukraine was given in December by the acting head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, Yulia Zhdanova. She reported, citing Defense Ministry data, that some 15,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries had entered Ukraine since the conflict began, mostly citizens of Poland, the US, and Georgia. Nearly 6,500 of them have since been killed in action, according to Zhdanova.
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